The Cold War

Spotlights on Primary Sources

The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains many documents related to the Cold War. The following Spotlights on Primary Sources highlight select documents and provide a brief description and summary of the context, a transcript and image of the featured document, and discussion questions. Spotlights prompt critical analysis of primary sources and a better understanding of historical context. They also serve as excellent classroom or public forum discussion activities and they can be printed as activity sheets. 

• Physicists predict a nuclear arms race, 1945 
• Harry Truman responds to McCarthy, 1950 
• Anti-communist trading cards, 1951
• The Cold War in the classroom, 1952 
• President Truman's Farewell Address, 1953 
• J. Edgar Hoover on campus unrest, 1970 
• The end of the Vietnam War: conscience, resistance, and reconciliation, 1973 
• Reagan speech: “Tear down this wall,” 1987 

Guided Readings

• Anti-Communism at Home
• The Atomic Bomb 
• Origins of the Cold War: The Containment Policy
• The Korean War 

History Now Essays

From History Now 27 (Spring 2011): “The Cold War”

• “Cold War, Warm Hearth” by Elaine Tyler May
• “The Consequences of Defeat in Vietnam” by Mark Atwood Lawrence
• “Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy” by Jeremi Suri
• “Iran and the United States in the Cold War” by Malcolm Byrne
• “Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War: The Debate Continues” by Michael Cox
• “Truman and His Doctrine: Revolutionary, Unprecedented, and Bipartisan” by Elizabeth Edwards Spalding
• “The United States and China During the Cold War” by Warren I. Cohen)

Additional Essays 

• “Anti-Communism in the 1950s” by Wendy Wall, Binghamton University
• “Postwar Politics and the Cold War” by Jeremi Suri, University of Texas, Austin
• “The United States and the Space Race” by James Spiller, SUNY Brockport

Inside the Vault 

• “Fight the Red Menace”: On the December 2, 2021, Inside the Vault, Professor Victoria Phillips discussed selected trading cards from the Fight the Red Menace: Children’s Crusade against Communism series. In 1951, the Bowman Bubblegum Company issued forty-eight trading cards as part of a propaganda initiative to teach American children about the threatened spread of communism. Each card features a dramatic, colorful depiction of American military heroes and victories or Communist villains and their atrocities. The text on the reverse uses strong language to focus on the threat posed by Communism, building on fears of infiltration at home and military attacks from abroad.
• “Harry Truman and the Rise of ‘Pathological Liar’ Joseph McCarthy”: On December 7, 2023, our curators were joined by Dr. Barbara Perry of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center to discuss Harry Truman and McCarthyism. In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused more than 200 staff at the Department of State of being members of the Communist Party. How did President Harry Truman respond to the attack on his administration? 

Lectures and Webinars

• “The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Cold War” with Aaron David Miller, Woodrow Wilson Center- 37 minutes 
• “The Cuban Missile Crisis” with Sergei Khrushchev - 1 hour 
• “The End of the Cold War” with Thomas Blanton, George Washington University) - 42 minutes
• “Their Full Measure: American Service in the Wars of the Cold War” with Sharon Raynor, Elizabeth City State University - 1 hour, 41 minutes 
• “Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974” with James Patterson (Brown University) - 40 minutes
• “Origins of the Cold War” with John Lewis Gaddis (Yale University) - 58 minutes
• “Origins of the Vietnam War” with John Prados (National Security Archives) - 55 minutes 
• “The US, the Middle East, and the Cold War” with Malcolm Byrne (National Security Archive) - 1 hour, 11 minutes

Books for Further Reading 

Each of the following books has been featured in an episode of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Book Breaks program. 

• G-Man: J Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, Beverly Gage (Yale University)
• Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate, Mary Sarotte (Johns Hopkins University)
• The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, Louis Menand (Harvard University)

Gilder Lehrman Online Courses 

• The Global Cold War (Jeremi Suri, University of Texas at Austin): This course examines the origins, strategy, and consequences of the Cold War from a global perspective. 
  • History U for students
  • Self-Paced Course
• The 1960s in Historical Perspective (Michael Flamm, Ohio Wesleyan University; Michael Kazin, Georgetown University): This course explores the myths and memories that constitute our perceptions of the 1960s.
  • History U for students
  • Self Paced Course
• The Vietnam War (Frederik Logevall, Harvard University): This course covers the long struggle for Vietnam waged between 1940 and 1975, with particular attention to the period of direct American involvement
  • History U for students
  • Self Paced Course

Lesson Plans

• The Cold War as a Culture War: Visualizing Values and the Role of Pop Culture (Grades 7–12) 
• The Cold War: Discussing the Speech of President Kennedy in 1963 (Grades 8–12) 
• Envisioning the Moon Landing (1901–1969) (Grades 7–9) 
• The Origins of US Cold War Fears (Grades 7–12)
• Vietnam Veterans: Legacies of Service, 1964–2016 (Grades 7–12)